Quotes About Wisdom

Rumi tells us that moment we accept what troubles we've been given, the door will open.

I have come to trust the power of a few well-chosen words to reveal to the world something I cannot say, or don't want to say, or didn't even know I needed to say until I saw it spelled out in front of me in the prophetic hand of the poet.

Emotional intelligence is learning how to decipher and channel the brilliance of your heart." 

T. S. Eliot says, "The end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.

I do not wish upon anyone a descent into hell. But if your life has to be turned inside out in order for you to know yourself—if the shadow of a shaman crosses your path and you turn and follow it down—I pray that you use its force wisely. I hope that you take the ultimate responsibility for your actions and that you consecrate any destruction to the rebuilding of your higher self and a more radiant life.

We are in search of our most authentic, vital, generous, and wise self.

Just sing me your song. Teach me the words. Tell me what you know.

There is meaning hidden in the small changes of everyday life, and wisdom to be found in the shards of your most broken moments.

Rumi speaks of the Open Secret. He says that each one of us is trying to hide a secret—not a big bad secret, but a more subtle and pervasive one.

How can it be when we're all safeguarding the very same story? That's why Rumi calls it an Open Secret.

What is the soul?" a man in the audience asked. "The soul," I said, "was the one who just answered the question 'Why are you really here?' It is the wise and whole and brave part of the self. The soul is the ageless longing for truth that sends scientists into the lab and seekers onto the spiritual path." And

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don't go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want. Don't go back to sleep. People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch. The door is round and open. Don't go back to sleep.

If you're not going to get any wiser, what's the point of getting older?

I studied because I wanted to know, not because I wanted the world to know I knew.

You could learn that too in books, it's said. I got a heap of books to read and ne'er a one have I read yet but two or maybe three. You could never read all the books in the world, I reckon, if you read all your days until you're old.' 'I don't aim to get old. I wouldn't. Grow up is all I aim.

Here's how Granny looks,' Melissy said, sucking in her lips to look toothless. 'Here's Granny.' 'Shame to you,' Ellen said. 'I'll whip you and whip hard if I hear you make fun of your granny. Don't let me hear e'er one of you make fun of your granny or your grandpap either. Granny, she's old. It's a shame to make fun of old folks. You'll be old yourself some day.

I'm old. I'm so old I'm about done with liven. I can feel how old I am. I'm old and old and old. I've been in life a long, long time. Oh, how old I am.

Hazel was old, but with children still little: she had an exhausted air of experience, someone who thought a lot of things but actually knew very few.

I'm someone who's done the opposite of whatever the received wisdom is, to keep your career going into your 50s.

This individual does not know where initiative ends and rocket-propelled idiocy begins.

Intelligent men think up ways to get themselves in tangles a stupid man would never imagine.

Never regret the stupidity of enemies

All I can really tell you, laddie, is to live for today. For the moment. Wasting time is the biggest mistake we can make in lo-ove.

Let the past go, Bren, or it will ruin your future.